Educational game device



Sept. 2 1924.

|.. FOULKS EDUCATIONAL GAME DEVICE Filed Oct. 27. 192] Inuerdor fi/zaFa'ul/fs Patented Sept. 2, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ITHA FOULKS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

EDUCATIONAL GAME DEVICE.

Applicationfiled October 27, 1921. Serial No. 510,701.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ITHA FooLKs, a citi zenof the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook andState of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inEducational Game Devices, of which the following is a full,

ing and teaching of large groups of children.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a planview illustrating more or less diagrammatically a device embodying my'improvements. And Fig. 2 is a detail perspective of one of the sectionsor blocks constituting a part of the entire device.

In the drawing, the embodiment of the improved device is shown inconnection with States, each the United States although it will beunderstood that the invention may be employed in connection with othercountries.

In carrying out my invention, I provide what may be termed a relativelylarge platform of suflicient size to readily accommodate thereon arelatively large number of children or persons ofolder age, so that thechildrenmay move from one place to another on the platform for thepurpose of carrying out the features ofthe instructive game. In actualpractice, preferably a suit able foundation of concrete or otherpermanent material will be laid out and upon this bed or foundation willbe placed the platform which, in the instance shown, corresponds to thegeographical outline of the United States. The platform itself willpreferably be made of some substantial wear resisting material as, forinstance, concrete. The platform is made up of a plurality ofindependent sections or blocks, each corresponding to a politicalsub-division of the country, and, in connection with the United sectionor block will correspond to the geographical outline of a State, one ofsuch blocks or sections being indicated in Fig. 2, the samecorresponding to the State of Nevada. The sections or blocks will bemade to fit properly and when all are assembled, the platform willcorrespond to a map of the United States.

Each of the State-sections will be 'provided with an opening or recessas indicated at 10, said recesses being located to correspond with thelocations of the capitals of the different States, as indicated inFig. 1. In carrying out one feature of the game, the children will begiven little flags or plugs to be placed in the proper capital cityrecess 10. The various sections corresponding to the difierent Stateswill also preferably be differently colored so as to distinguish onefrom the other. Other recesses may be provided to indicate locations ofthe larger cities in the different States, which may not happen tocorrespond with the capital cities. Furthermore, the variousState-sections may be suitably inscribed, as for instance shown inconnection with Pennsylvania and Louisiana, with data describing theprincipal products of the particular State as anthracite coal forPennsylvania and raw sugar for Louisiana. The principal ports, as forinstance, Boston, New York, etc., may have their locations indicated.Locations of the principal rivers, mountains, lakes and other physicalgeographic characteristics of the country, may be suitably indicated byindicia or by, the proper relief effects. The principal railroad routes,high-ways, old Indian trails, populations of the different States andcities, the princpal railroad centers, the locations of the principalsources of water power and various minerals, the chief centers ofdifferent nationalities, etc., can all be suitably represented on themap platform, or recesses'provided at the proper points to receive plugsor flags having the respective items of information thereon.

In playing the game, the children can be given a number of plugs withinstructions to place them in the proper corresponding recesses, or thechildren can play the game by moving from one point to another oint, asfor instance, in tracing out a main ighway, or the platform can be usedby the children skipping or hopping from one State to another over theState boundary lines in substantially the same manner as hop-scotch isplayed.

By my improved device, I am enabled to teach large numbers of childrenvarious physical, economic and commercial geographical information inthe form of games and thus familiarize the children with the mostimportant geographical information relating to any partlcular country,as for instance, the United States.

I claim:

An educational game device, comprising a platform having onthe uppersurface thereof, a map forming a playground, said map corresponding inoutline to the geographical outline of a country, said map beingcomposed of a plurality of permanently associated, distinct areasdistinguishable in size and outline, each area corresponding in outlineto the geographical outmoame line of an actual political sub-division ofthe country, said map being of a size to accommodate a number of personsthereon for movement from point to point on the map during play andstill be embraced in its entirety Within the field of vision of a personthereon, whereby geographical instruction may be imparted to personsthereon while traveling from area to area.

In Witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereuntosubscribed my namethis 13th day of October, A. D. 1921.

I v ITHA FOULKS. Witness:

ANN BAKER.

